Demon Hunter Inferno Build (Patch 1.0.3) & How to Gear Up

Hi friends! I’m finally back from a long trip through Europe! I had a great time, saw some awesome things, and drank a lot of beer! The trip was great, but I couldn’t really enjoy it knowing that Patch 1.0.3 was going to drop and change some key things for us Demon Hunters. Watching the comments come in on my previous post, I could tell a lot of you were concerned also. Fortunately, the changes aren’t that bad. I’ve got a a few tweaks to my previous build that should help all of us progress farther into Inferno and I have videos of this build in action! The videos are at the bottom if you want to avoid my wall of text x_x. OK, lets get started!

So what happened to us in 1.0.3? 2 major things and 1 minor one:

Increased Attack Speed bonus values on weapons and armor have been reduced by 50%.

If you were stacking IAS, like I was, then your DPS took a major hit. I know mine did. I went from something over 2.2 attacks per second to about 1.7. That hurt. IAS was the key component for sustained DPS and also super important for Hatred regeneration. This nerf sadly affected all gear that players had already spent millions of gold on, rather than just new items, which was contrary to how things used to work in D2. I’ll agree and say Demon Hunters were putting out high numbers, but I still don’t feel that a 50% reduction was needed.

Nether Tentacles will now only hit each target once.

This was also a huge hit to our DPS. Hitting a target 2-3 times with one Nether Tentacle was amazing for our damage output, allowing us to easily clear waves of mobs and quickly pump damage into Elites. I’m still amused that they listed this as a bug, when it was really a nerf. The developers and play testers had to have known the mechanics of this skill. Be that as it may, this skill was god like pre 1.0.3 and everyone was using it. When everyone starts using a certain skill, it normally gets nerfed, so other classes can’t complain about how OP it is. Ah…the joys of game balance…

Evasive Fire no longer fires through Elite Waller’s walls.

This never made it into the patch notes, but it’s worth mentioning since the way Blizzard wants us to play this game is to run around and kill elites. This isn’t a huge change, but it was very nice versus Wallers. This definitely was a bug and now that it’s fixed, it will only make the game more challenging and therefore more fun to play! Now lets see how long it takes Blizzard to fix the fact that Evasive Fire still shoots through some environment walls and around corners and doorways ^_^

So what does this mean for us as we progress through Inferno? We need to change the way we think about how we deal damage. Before 1.0.3, Demon Hunters were free to gear however they wanted and still progress. I don’t feel like that necessarily the case any more. The change to Nether Tentacles coupled with the reduction in IAS means we need to change our play style to keep our DPS high. Thankfully, we still have the means to do this.

The 1.0.3 Solo Inferno Build

This is a build setup for solo play in Inferno. It can be used in groups, but when grouping, I’d recommend picking skills with better synergism for your party. This build is very close to my previous Demon Hunter Solo Inferno build, but with new changes for patch 1.0.3.

Build Overview

For those of you who have been using the previous build, you won’t see any drastic changes here, just changes to our Secondary and one of our Passives.

This build is about survivability through mobility, while keeping our DPS above Inferno requirements. It’s designed to take advantage of your Nephalem Valor stacks and kill elites and bosses. This build, when played properly, should allow you to beat 99% of the elite combos in Inferno.

Survivability is paramount. Demon hunters are one of the “glass cannon” classes of the game, and this becomes even more evident upon reaching Inferno. You will be 1 shot by the zombies in Act 1, the damage output of the normal monsters is just plain ridiculous. Think this is bad? Just wait until you get to monsters that actually move fast. This is why we use Evasive Fire. It keeps us out of melee range for a small Discipline cost (4), which keeps us alive, which keeps us farming mobs. Most elites in Inferno are insanely fast, and this helps you kite and survive.

Good damage output and great hatred regen. At 125% weapon damage and 4 hatred regen per shot, this is the most efficient damage per hatred regen skill we have.

Conical hit box of Coving Fire. Covering Fire fires out in about a 45 degree area, allowing you to quickly kill waves of mobs and clear environmental objects.

Beast Mode On. At 250% weapon damage for 25 hatred, this is the best all around ranged DPS skill we have. It allows us to quickly damage a target and keep moving, which is key in Inferno.

Penetration! Impale has some very nice runes for elite killing, namely Chemical Burn (125% weapon damage bleed) and Grievous Wounds (increase crit damage by 100%). However, in this guide, we’re not using this skill to primary kill elites. Spike Trap is still our primary damage dealer. Overpenetration is used for our AOE and is necessary for clearing packs of mobs. It becomes highly effective when kiting groups of enemies into groups where you can hit multiple targets in 1 shot.

Action Bar Skills

Keep on moving! In Inferno, you have to kite. You stand still and you die. The movement Vault provides is extremely important for kiting, getting away from avoidables, positioning, and escaping nasty elites (think Vortex, Plague, Molten, Mortor, Teleporter, etc.). Vault also allows you to get out of corning situations, allowing you kite into dead ends (useful in the dungeons at end of Act 1 or anywhere with long corridors where you can’t kite in circles.

You will use this more than once! Tumble is key to beating the super fast moving elite mobs you’ll encounter in Inferno.

You can use this to escape and reset the fight! Spamming Vault at full Discipline will allow you to out run any mob and get beyond their aggro radius. This alone has saved me multiple deaths and costly repair bills.

This is your Vanish! All my Rogue players know what I’m talking about! This is your only immunity ability and has endless uses in many situations like: breaking elite Jailor’s jails, escaping snares, avoiding incoming damage (think Molten elites and enemies that get into melee range). It can also be used to escape the Butcher’s meathook! This should never happen because you’re using this build have super mobility, but if it does quickly pop Smoke Screen and you will exit the stun and escape unharmed! Also, use this versus Reflect Damage mobs to not take damage!

1.5 seconds is still worth it. This was nerfed hardcore due to massive exploits which are no longer possible, but it’s still long enough to drop aggro, reposition, and get back in the fight.

HEAL MEAH! This is your only heal outside of potions, and in Inferno, you will need it! This has saved me countless times and I can’t imagine soloing without it. This becomes even more important now that we’re no longer benefiting from Nether Tentacle’s regen.

Endurance for kiting. This keeps you alive and gives you a lot of endurance in long elite and boss fights by making kiting very viable. If you can kite the enemy for 45 seconds, you can heal and get back in the fight.

BIGABDABOOM. 3 275% weapon damage AOE traps for 30 Hatred is like cheating. This is your main source of damage for everything, minus some bosses like Belial where you need a ranged attack to hit him. This is amazing for kiting elites and clearing packs of mobs. The high hatred cost is offset by the fast hatred regen with Evasion Fire.

Place them anywhere. You drop your traps where your mouse is, so you can throw them very far making them very effective.

Passives

It’s time. 3% Critical strike chance increase every second until you crit and then you keep that crit rating for 1 second. Unless you’re running around in amazing gear with over 30% crit rating, this skill will be a huge DPS increase for you when used with this build. While kiting around, this charges up your crit so you can chain your abilities, like timing an Impale to Hit right as an Elite walks over a Spike Trap! Things like this are the key to quickly taking down elites.

Super Speed! 60% movement speed, even for 2 seconds, is amazing in Inferno. You’ll kite better, escape better, live longer, and kill more demons because of this skill. The ability to reposition, or to run, will help you in all situations in this game.

Super Synergy! This talent is triggered from Vault, Smoke Screen, and the Evasive fire backflip. Hmmm…those abilities sound familiar… This talent works will all of this build’s core survival abilities! This makes it a must have!

Inferno is Kite or die! I can’t say this enough, you have to keep moving and have almost no time to stand in one spot and turret. “OK, but the critical strike buff stacks while you’re not using it, so while you’re kiting you build up more DPS.” This is true, but this argument is flawed in that it fails to consider how many times you’ll be able to actually strike the enemy before you run out of space, Discipline, or health. Until Inferno, I think Sharpshooter is a must have, but once you get into the end game, mobs move too fast and are not as effected by slows and CC as they were. You will NEED the speed boost that comes from this talent. Finally, remember this: “you can’t DPS a target if you’re dead.”

20% damage is nothing is in 10 yards of you. Evasion Fire backflip is 15 yards, so this will normally be in effect!

But I like Archery! That’s totally cool, and if you have over 30% Crit Rating, drop Sharpshooter and pick this up for damage. Also, depending on your weapon choice, it may be best for you to use Archery. How do you know if it’s better? Use a DPS spreadsheet, here is a link to the Forums for the one I use. Dretar! You’re the man!

Q & A

So…Why Impale?

High DPS and high mobility. Patch 1.0.3 changed the way we were able to output high DPS. The reduction in IAS and the nerf to Nether Tentacles means that we can’t rely on sustained volleys of a skill to clear packs, kill elites, and down bosses like we used to. Impale gives us a high DPS skill that works perfectly with this build and with the play style this build encourages. While kiting elites, you normally only have time to turn and fire one shot, and this is the ideal situation for using Impale with Overpenetration. Kiting often tends to tightly group mobs in a linear fashion, allowing you to hit multiple targets in one shot. Also, while you’re kiting, Sharpshooter is charging up your Critical Strike chance, allowing you to do massive damage with even more mobility.

Not Attack Speed dependent. Most of the normal secondary skills really benefit from high IAS, because this allows you to put more rounds on target in less time. To put it in MW3 terms, think of all other ranged DPS skills as sub machine guns, and Impale is your sniper rifle. You don’t need a lot of shots from a sniper rifle to do serious damage, and the same is true of Impale. You can get away with less IAS and still do great damage.

But what about [insert skill name here], isn’t that still viable? Let’s have a look:

Rapid Fire – I really love this skill, I love the animation, the damage, and the turretting, but NO, ths is not viable. When you’re soloing in Inferno, YOU HAVE TO MOVE. You don’t have time to channel, end of story. Now if you’re in a group, then this can be decent since it has a good % damage to hatred ration as time goes to infinity (calculus anyone?), but for soloing its a big negative.

Cluster Arrow – I hear a lot of people use this and I can’t imagine why. This is an OK skill, but it’s not a true ranged attack. 50 Hatred for 250% plus 100% damage sounds cool, but it’s not. Besides the high Hatred cost and small damage radius, the main thing I hate about this skill is that you have to aim it. “Wait, but you have to aim Spike Traps too.” Yes, but we’re comparing this to Impale. The difference is that we need a ranged attack that can go off screen. This is what Cluster Arrow should be. Since it’s not, it’s in direct competition with Spike Traps. Again, Spike Traps with Scatter does 3 275% weapon damage AOE traps for 30 Hatred which is 9.1% damage per Hatred per trap compared to 10.8% for cluster arrow with the Loaded for Bear rune. Obviously if you can hit with all 3 traps, Spike Trap wins, but it also wins because you can place them out of Line of Sight in some situations, like through doorways, around corners, and on different heights. Plus, Spike Trap stays for 30 seconds or until it blows up, where as with Cluster it’s an all or nothing shot.

Chakram – Here’s another skill that makes me go hmmmm. It has a nice % damage to Hatred ratio, but I just don’t like it. Most of the runes cause the projectile to move either too slowly or in curves where it can collide with the environment and end the effect. This makes it a gamble, as you never really know if it’s going to hit your target. It may be useful in wide open areas, but then again, so is Impale, and Impale works in all environments.

Multishot – I like this skill, and I really like the Suppression Fire rune (returns 1 Discipline for every hit). The problem I have with it is the low % damage to Hatred ratio. It’s just not effective in Inferno, even with Full Broadside (214% instead of 165% damage per shot, results in only a 5.4% damage to Hatred ratio) it just can’t compete with Impale Overpenetration in single target or multiple targets.

Elemental Arrow – This was our bread and butter until Nether Tentacle got fixed (nerfed) and I miss it, but some of the other runes are still viable. Frost Arrow has a very nice 17.5% damage to hatred ratio, small CC radius, and gives you CC which are all awesome, but most elites won’t be affected by it’s slow. If you’re looking for CC, try Screaming Skull. The 1.5 second fear is awesome since the enemies actually run away from you, giving you more time to reposition. The thing about these two runes is that with this build, YOU DON’T NEED CC. Also, for these skills to be useful, you need to do a little turretting with them, and you won’t have time to stand still and DPS in the later acts.

OK, so what kind of gear do I need to make this work?

This isn’t a gear-dependent build, and it shouldn’t be. Unless your gear is just god awful, anyone should be able to pick up this build and benefit from it. Now with that said, the skills in this build and the play style do benefit from some certain stats more than others, and here they are:

Critical Strike Damage – Kiting with Sharpshooter allows for a very high crit rate, so take advantage of it and start getting more Crit Damage bonuses on your gear. One way to get Crit Damage is to use a 2 handed crossbow and pick up Archery over Steady Aim. If you’re already using a 2 Hand Crossbow, do this. If not, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I personally don’t care for the crossbow animation and hate the slow attack speed, but this build aims to be attack speed independent by making heavy use of Spike Trap and the occasional Impale, so they can work.

Critical Strike Chance – Start looking for this on your gear. Get above at least 25% and then drop Sharpshooter and pick up another talent, like Archery.

Movement Speed - Do yourself a favor and make sure you 12% Movement Speed on your boots. This will do wonders for your kiting.

Well you must have godlike gears…

LOL, I wish! That’s why I’m still playing! Seriously, I would consider my gear to be above average, but far from best in slot. In my previous post, many people asked what kind of gear I was running. My current gear, which hasn’t changed much, focused on IAS and Dexterity. I have about 1800 Dex and I use a 1000 DPS 2 Hand Bow that has where my attacks per second are about 1.7 and am lucky that some pieces have Crit Damage on them. My current setup has about 99% Crit Damage with no extra Crit Strike. I don’t have any Hatred Regen or extra Discipline at the moment, but would love to get my hands on some! My calculated DPS with Sharpshooter maxed is about 57k, not too crazy when you hear about people with 122k DPS lol.

Basically, my gear is constantly evolving, just like all of yours. In some of my recent videos, I’ve been showing my stats at the end. I’ll continue to do that and if you have a question, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to respond.

Videos

Here are some clips of this build in Act 3 Inferno of patch 1.0.3 versus some good elite combos. The ones that give me the hardest challenge are mobs that have a normal ranged attack coupled with Mortar, and Reflect Damage is really a bitch now, but we can still do it.

Healthlink Mortar Nightmare Frozen

Jailor Healthlink Knockback Molten

Reflect Damage Molten Electrified Descerator

Waller Reflect Damage Electrified Horde

Pulling 3 packs in Act 2 lolz

Coming Soon…

I’ll be adding more videos and trying to do that Gear Guide I had been putting off due to the proposed IAS nerf. If there’s something else you guys would like to see or have me write about, post it in the comments. Cheers!

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.

I did use a lot of evasive fire on the past, and it was great! But in the end i used HA and NT as everyone else, along with the scatter bombs.

Since the patch, I’m sticking with elemental arrow along with Ball Lightning… It’s pretty much like NT, with a big hit radius but less dmg. I also replaced the spike trap with cluter arrow with the cluster bombs rune, once you learn to use it correctly, it does so much damage it feels like I’m cheating.

Well, in the end, find skills that match your play style. I find that with a decent amount of Crit Damage that I can do some serious damage with Impale and if I can line up mobs, it becomes even more effective.

It was high time I tried a new DH spec. This one looks awesome. I’m gonna try it tonight on my final push to level 60 (currently 57). On the other hand everything is gonna feel very easy now that my DPS has gone from 13K to 32K, simply from a bow update (300+ DPS -> 700+ DPS).

All i can say is HOE-LEY-SHITE!!!! I cant believe how easy inferno is with this skill build. I didnt have to change gear or anything (gear is always an improvement process). You are the MAN, man. only wish i had thought of it >.>

Thanks for the great guide. You mentioned that the IAS nerf hit you hard and that this stat is still very important.

As far as I understand, IAS has no influence on your spike traps as it won’t even increase the speed you can place the traps. Therefore IAS is at least for your main damage skill absolutely obsolete.

I know IAS is important to refresh your hatred but overall IAS is mostly useless for your (and also my) skill build since it will only artificcaly increase your DPS in terms of higher numbers in your ingame stats but not a single damage point more in actual damage of your spike traps.

Since I used spike traps as my main damage skill I completely ignored IAS and focussed on raw base DPS and high dexerity.

What do you think about the importance of IAS for this skill build? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about it.

Resistance is important as you progress, but you don’t need a lot thanks to the patch. I’m currently in Act 3 and as you can see in my videos, I have at least +60 in all and 2756 armor. This isn’t hard to hit if you pick up + All Resistances on 2-3 pieces of gear.

You should show more videos of you fighting in tight space as in part 3 of act 3 when you’re in the dungeon and there isn’t much open space. This build works great for me in open space but I’m having a hard time getting anywhere in the narrow hallways down below.

Also, one thing you might want to try vs using the spike trap is elemental arrow with lightning ball. I think it’s amazing. Uses hardly and hate and destroys everything in it’s path. I love it on champion mobs that have there little missile slow bubble because it just sits in their bubble and ticks away at them and when you get like 10 lightning balls on top of them it melts them to pieces. (I wish more mobs had that ability rather than always seeing fast mobs =D) Since I use that as more of an aoe I also like to go with the grievous wounds rune on impale. With absolutely 0 extra crit dmg at the moment I’m critting for 165k which is amazing! I’m gonna start looking for more stuff with crit dmg and run with it. So far I’ve been plowing through stuff that usually gave me trouble before.

Hi After gearing up a bit and switching to your skills I am having a blast with elite mobs. However I seem to be having trouble with Belial inferno with this build. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

For those of you having issues with Ghom I found a great build in this video which I also have enjoyed using for the hell of it in other situations. But Ghom has become ridiculously hard and with the build in this video I was able to just stand in and take it from him.

I have far more better gear than yours and this expains why I’m still stuck in ACT 3 Inferno. I will definitely try this build tonight. This looks very promising indeed! Perhaps I was used to tanking with my Monk but I think kiting is something that’s here to stay for us DH I believe.

Thanks for this guide!

Can we add you in game? You know..just to have real time opinion if need be.

Tried to revise the guide you have here to caltrops but after I hit Inferno I finally understood why it was more efficient to put spike traps. Now my DH is striding Inferno one step at a time but much stable than before.
Thanks for this build!
Just want to know though the titles of the music you used for the video. Kinda want to listen to the whole track(s).

For Reflect Damage mobs, one trick is to try to pick them off 1 at a time, so if you can kite one away from the pack you’ll have an easier time.

The other trick is to time your DPS and cover your burst with Smoke Screen. I do this in the videos with Reflect elites, check it out!

Finally, as for the music, I’ll try to put together a list, but check out http://www.anjunabeats.com/, they have most of the DJs in my videos. Arty, Above and Beyond, Matt Zo, etc…and if you like internet radio, check out http://www.AH.FM!

I have really enjoyed this build until Belial (have been using since entering hell, great job), but I can’t beat him with any gear set I have tried. If I do more armor and life, I can’t kill him before he goes berserk and the constantly rains green balls till I die. If I sacrifice armor and for high DPS, I either A, can’t reach the final stage, or B, can’t take a hit from him. Any suggestions?

You’re not suppose to take a hit from those fireballs. You need to save up your discipline for the vault, smoke screen and same goes keep your preparation skill ready for when you ran out of discipline it can replenish it and same goes your HP. Also invest a bit on HP and resist armors.

I had trouble with Belial for a while. I would die when he smashes his fists down during his giant phase.

Then I switched to Vault with Tactical Advantage and it became a piece of cake. The trick is to vault out of the green pools during his smash phase, smoke screen when he breathes the green lightning, and just run around when he does the green pool explosions on the floor (don’t try to attack at ALL during this part).

Crossbow for burst damage. Fast attacks are not that great when most of your time is spent running out trying to survive, enough time to get off only 1 or 2 shots in between. That means you want a high burst of damage. Don’t get 2-hand crossbows that have IAS in them — as this will not benefit during your single burst attack while kiting.

However, bows and hand crossbows (and IAS) are useful if you stack LIFE ON HIT with RESISTS. The faster you attack the faster you can regen the flat-rate health amount. With 500 or so resists, you can literaly sit there taking blows since you can regen your health back super fast. Use bows with LOH if you want to still keep a quiver and get the 15% damage bonus from Archery. Use hand crossbows with IAS (the IAS on one will affect the other when dual wielding) on both if you want even faster regen.

Great guide! I think I’ll try switching my elemental arrow with impale, see how it goes. Anyway, this strategy is great when dealing with elites! But I would like to know how do you deal with boss fights, specially when you have 5 stacks of nephalem valor. Is the same set of skills still effective?

yeah, as much as possible I wouldn’t like to change skills when a boss fight is next to preserve that 5 stacked NV. Anyway I would be looking forward to that boss fight videos! thanks for the quick reply mate!

ohhh I forgot, killing elites using your build has been a walk in the park, but every time I encounter FAST elites, I have problems dealing with them lol. I always find myself mashing the vault and smoke screen skills just to kite them for a while and then wouldn’t be able to escape them again when they run to me since I’ve used up all my discipline LOL. Any tips for this one? Thanks!

So Fast is bad, especially on mobs that are already have a high move speed (the dogs in Act 3, the little demons in Act 2, etc).

The best way I’ve found to handle these is to find an area of the map with a terrain feature you can kite them around. Sometimes it will mess up their kiting, allowing you to get away. If not, it’s going to be a hard fight. I rely a lot on my Templar’s Charge, Taunt, and Slow for these kinds of mobs. Caltrops and Frost Arrow does nothing to Fast mobs, so you just have to out kite them and try to mess up their pathing.

Yeah, I guess we’ll just have to outsmart them bastards.haha. What I usually do is, if ever I’m at an area with little space (like the breach from the keep in Act 3) I place Spike Traps in confined areas so that the moment the enemy steps on it, all 3 traps would detonate. Lucky me if it goes off and gives critical damage. I think this is were the spike trap strives, but yeah moving around quick enough in confined areas is quite hard haha. Thanks for the tips mate! Hope I can farm inferno act 3 soon for those high end equips.

Looking at the Passives this build utilizes, I don’t see room for Vengeance. Even if I was over 30% crit, I’d drop Sharpshooter for Archery before taking Vengeance.

Thing I like most about the talent is the 2 Discipline restored from health globes, but it’s not enough. Your play style can change to where you’re not Hatred / Disc starved, but your play style will never give you the bonuses from Archery.

Hi i love your build, i started to play Diablo 3 like a month ago and i since i was in late hell i found your build pretty good, the only thing i always questioned myself was the nether tentacles since when i started two use those for the build it alredy hitted just one time and i never even knew it could hit more than that.

I think you just need to adjust the build in the link cause a lot of people just look at the link and don’t read the explanation about the build, and in the link vault is with the wrong rune insteado of tumble, and preparation is without any rune.

Since the moment i was able to use Spike Trap with Scatter rune i knew that i was seing the most higher dps skill i could use for a DH, if a enemy set foot on that thing and the three explode and crit he will receive over 300k dmg from me, it’s way too good(i am afraid this is going to be nerphed in the future, it’s really strong…).

I have just a question, when you’re going to face bosses, like belial in with the mines doesn’t work well or others, do you change some skill or just use the same thing as always(cause i hate to lose the nephalem’s valor).

Anyway, great build as always, and i like the fact that you can do build that does not need you to have a 100kk gear to work with.

Thanks for the guide, it has helped me to such an extent that I no longer die all the time in Inferno mode.
DPS increase by almost 20k switching to this build (probably showing mine was absolutely rubbish lol)
Quick question though what do you change your build to when playing in a group?
Thanks again

Hey. First off, thanks for the guides. I’ve been using your builds for over a week. I’m very satisfied with my damage output and survivability while soloing Inferno. I switched to Impale+Grievous wounds prior to reading your updated guide but will try Overpenetration.

I do have a question and would like your opinion (or anyone’s). Currently, I’m at 25.5% crit and 290% crit damage. I use 2x 1-handed xbows. Which passive will give me more DPS: Archery’s 10% crit or Sharpshooter?

The correct answer to this is “use a speadsheet” ^_^, but without seeing your gear and assuming you’re already using Archery, I’d say stick with Archery.

Here goes my handwaving: At 25% Crit you should be getting criticals 1 out of every 4 shots. If you drop Archery your critical chance will be 15.5% initially, meaning 1 in 6-7 shots will critical. Now add Sharpshooter into the mix and you’ll be adding 3% crit every second. Assuming 2 1.6 hizzies and no extra IAS on your gear, you will have fired 4 shots at just under 2.5 seconds. In this 2.5 seconds, assuming you haven’t got a critcial, your crit rating will have gone up 6% to 21.5%. Therefore, it will take at least 4 seconds for Sharpshooter to raise your crit rating to greater than or equal to where it was with Archery, and during this time you will have expended more than 4 shots, making Archery the better choice. This assumes standing and firing, not kiting (where Sharpshooter can greatly build up your crit if you’re not attacking), but just keep it simple and go with Archery.

Hi I’ve been using a stun build, primary is Bola shot with Thunder Ball ( my gloves/ quiver/ bow give +stun aswell ), Caltrops with Jagged Spikes ( the damage can proc stun aswell ), Marked for Death for DPS increase on area ( that rune so I dont have to worry about placing it on other mobs when I kill one with it ), Rain of Vengeance ( with Flying Strike for stun offc. ) and Companion Ferrets ( 2 companions dpsing and their damage can proc stun aswell ) but my question is about the secondary wich I have Chakram with Razor Disk rune,
You can throw it far and it spirals out, so its like impale with penetration but it comes back for another hit and helps with packs that are spread out and not in a single line ( also you can throw it next to the mobs to make it hit horizontally ) its really awesome when you get used to it, could you try it out and let me know what you think about the Chakram? I tried impale but found it expensive in cost and lacking in aoe ability tbh.

Thanks for the nice read! very informative and constructive, Im trying out your build next to the stunlock one I’ve made.
( almost at Act 3 now with my own build, gonna try yours when servers back up )

For leveling, I just continued through the story line until I beat the acts. As you progress and start to feel like you’re not doing enough damage, just hit the normal AH up, upgrades pre level 60 are pretty cheap.

I use Fraps, just google it and you’ll find it. There’s even a free version.

Hey I used a similar build but with Devouring Arrow instead of Evasive, Frost Arrow instead of Impale, and Bat Companion instead of Spike Trap. After seeing this guide I definitely want to try Spike Trap instead of Bat Companion because while I have been farming comfortably in Inferno, I felt like I was missing some sort of burst dmg, which is cured by Spike Traps. However, I would love your thoughts on keeping Devouring Arrow for single target DPS (While using Spike Traps) and keeping Frost Arrow instead of Impale as my main trash killer/CC (since Spike Trap takes 1.2second to activate). I know you already addressed Frost as useless for a CC, but I feel like if your at 1.7+atkspd (I’m at 1.75) you can still keep elite packs perma-slowed if spamming Frost. However, I was only able to spam Frost because I had Bat companion and have hatred regen on my quiver.

A second thought was using your exact build but with Screaming Skull instead of Impale. As you can probably tell I am not a huge fan of Impale. What are your thoughts?

I can see you point too x3dl33, I haven’t been a big fan of impale neither

Ive been using Chakram with Razordisk wich is a nice damage spam on groups, I like to hit multiple targets, I used Multishot with Fire at Will at low levels wich was fun but doesn’t have quite the punch.
Impale has that but only single row no wide attack.
I can see Screaming skull being usefull in this spec though wich is more survival orientated instead max dps.
Still need to try this spec out though

I like Screaming Skull, as the 1.5 second Fear is the best CC in Inferno. If it works better with your play style, go for it. I found that with good kiting, I didn’t need CC, and in the later acts of Inferno I need the damage from Impale.

Ok this is a fun spec
Just killed my first couple of champ groups in act 2 while searching for Kul’s blood, I just jumped right into it on inferno so I died a few times because I wasnt used to it and still had my talents on Sharpshooter, steady aim and archery, replaced the steady aim one with leap now since I have a 2h bow and that gave the most damage gonna practise a bit, get used to it ( keep forgetting impale heh )
But nice spec so far enjoying myself, gonna try something else for impale maybe, but need to look at numbers and use it more first

Thanks again, and let me know if you tried the Chakram with Razor disk yet

Thanks for all the of the feedback and I’m glad you’re having fun with this build. I give Chakram Razor another look, and while I think it’s completely fine for the first 2 acts of Inferno, I found that with my current gear setup I simply need more damage. I think Chakram is viable and in the end, if any skill works for your playstyle and gear, I say go for it! So, for now, I’ll be sticking to Impale but in the future I may switch back.

I’ve tested the chakram +razor rune, its not as high damage as the impale and with overpenetration its kinda nice since I can still hit the boss of an invulnerable pack with it. ( With Chakram too but lower damage ) Getting used to it now so not switching back to Chakram. ( And I wish I saw your guide before I bought a legendary quiver with +bola shot damage lol )
In the end this spec beats the Stunspec I had before, it took a while for me to get used to the mobility ( darn we are fast with this spec!! ) So vaulted into some weird dangerous places where I should not be lol but now I’m used to it and even goldgrinding act 1 inferno feels like Im playing it on normal

Hi there!
I tried this build today and I’m in love with it, great job! I have a question about the discipline though, even when using preparation, at times it seems that my discipline is always down near the bottom. Am I doing it wrong?

You can quickly run out of Discipline if you’re not careful about your Evasive Fire back flips. Try not to get corned while spamming Evasive Fire, this will quickly drain your Discipline. Other than that, just try to make use of the speed increase from Tactical Advantage as you kite around and use that time to recharge your Discipline before you get back in the fight.

I had this problem when first learning the build as well, but have learned to use vault more than SS I also like to use the flame path vault vs the 50% cost. Jumping through the mobs this rune does quite a bit more dmg than I first realized. There is one slight bonus to getting cornered while using evasive fire, not sure if it’s true but it seems to me that you fire again more quickly when you backflip than when you don’t so getting cornered if the mob is almost dead it seems like it fires them extremely fast to finish them off.

As everyone else said… I appreciate the build guide. It has helped guide me in the right direction since there are SO MANY different builds and styles on the web that it can be very confusing. I definitely respect everything you’ve put in your guide. Im currently in A3 Q1 Inferno. I would be interested in comparing gear and seeing what you have to say and/or any advice/comments that could help. My current DPS is 45K. If you do have the time, send me an invite in-game; Tank24#1103

I see you are talking about taking advantage of Nephalem Valor. However, to my best knowledge you do not get it if you use Elective Mode, which you obviously do. Could you please enlighten me about this?
Thank You!

Hmmm…..I have 28k hp, 50k dps with sharpshooter – but this build kills too slow in act 2 inferno. The mobs reach their inrage timer all the time.
Using the traps as main dps, and building rage with evasive fire. But atm all i run into are shielding and fast mobs.
I can kite them forever – but there just is not enough dmg output to be viable in my opinion.

The problem could be your gear setup. If you don’t have a decent amount of Crit Damage, you’re going to be missing a lot damage with this build. I’m working on writing a Gear Guide which will hopefully explain this more.

Agreed. I have 244% crit dmg and 30% crit chance at the moment. Neither of my rings or ammy have crit chance added to them, but looking into getting atleast an ammy with some crit chance along with crit dmg but their SO expensive. Anyway, with 30/244 crit deff helps out. I do 50K DPS without using Sharpshooter. For the build to work good, you deff need to look into upgrading your gear with crit dmg and chance. Also dex if you are able to.

Great build, helped me get to Act 3 Inferno!
I can farm Act 1 easly, but I do have some troubles in act 2 with 45k dps (gay walls or ref dmg).
I’m stuck on Ghome tho, cus i dont want to change my gear just for 1 boss Maybe if i get more DPS i can kill him, his poison gets me with 50% of his hp all the time.

Many thanks for the build, I really enjoyed using your build and DH now. I invested a lot on my first character which is a wizard and find her having extremely difficult time in inferno even with teleport.

DH is really more fun for me now with EF. Question, how about HA and EF and drop any AoE but just relying on ST on kiting? I have not reach inferno with my DH yet but I am trying to get into the mind set of kiting and my best to not even get hit by monsters. I know inferno monsters are even faster but just practicing at the moment.

would love to see you kill group of dmg reflect, invincible ads, teleport, random affix. =D
enjoy your build, cause i played mine pretty much the same way. but impale is really bad imo. aweful htred/dmg ratio and its not good plus another expensive hatred spender beneath the “boomboxes” is contra productive imo.
btw how much life and resistance do u have? cause i’m actually surprised you kill act3 champs on a regular basis with this low equip

With my DH, who was equipped OK for her level, I was having trouble getting through Act 4 Hell with what’s considered the “most popular” DH build. I got to Inferno and was immediately struggling badly against any and all champ packs.

I made only 1 change, and that was to change my spec to yours. Instantly everything was just so much easier. I’m almost done with A1 Inferno and I’ve only died when it was my own laziness or stupidity that got me killed. If this build can perform this way all the way through A4 Inferno, then I will be one happy DH.

For others wanting to try this build, I have to stress some very important, if not very obvious things. Number 1 is to not ignore your resists. Even with all the movement, you will get caught sometimes and without 250-300ish resists, you are gonna die a lot more. The second is that in this build, crit damage bonus is your absolute best stat. Right now I’m sitting at 293% with a xbow and Archery and I am constantly surprised at how hard I hit and how fast things die.

The final thing is that you should realize that this build has you constantly on the move, always. You never, ever sit still. If this means pulling more mobs into the fight, so be it. Adds that would kill me with my other build are easily dealt with in this build as long as I keep moving.

So thanks a ton for this build, you have helped me a ton when it comes to Inferno and my DH. She is a ton of fun to play now instead of being frustrating. Hopefully this build holds up into A2 and beyond.

After gearing up to 56k HP and 79k dps, i thought Inferno would be a challenge, but doable. Speed mobs killed me consistently until i tried your build and the survivability is through the roof. My lazy style of play seems to fit well with this build. The hardest part for me is fighting my Barbarian DNA that wants to tank all mobs, but if i overcome that, it is great fun to live long and prosper. Thanks again

When I first saw this guide, I was like “Pff, Evasive Fire ? That skill is just of no use ! How do you want to do any damage with that ?”
That’s kinda surprising how well it works, took me a while and I tried to tweak it but each time ended up keeping the same skill than you XD

Now I hit Inferno, and Elite are running smoothly – just ran over some Reflect Damage Lava elite without any problem at all. But there’s still one kind of elite I can’t down : those damn elites with Speed and Immune followers. Those immune monsters keep detonating the traps, and I can’t kite them without draining all my discipline in ten seconds. Could you post some videos against Speed mobs ? I guess that should help a lot, the problem might be me being still too trigger happy ^^

And second thing, I just can’t seem to like Impale with the Over-penetration rune. I’ve been playing a so long time with Elemental Arrow and Lightning Bolt (don’t know the English name) rune that I can’t do without ^^ It’s so much effective against huge packs and often hits twice, finally doing more damage for much less hatred. But well I’m still early Act1 so I guess I’ll understand your choice later XD

Kite Kite Kite! Against shielding, kite until the shields are down and have traps ready. Versus invulnerable minions, Impale with Overpower allows you to hit the main Elite. When you’re about to do big damage, pop Smoke Screen. You won’t take reflect damage while you’re screened.

Also, try to find a terrain feature that you can kite them around in circles. The better you are at kiting, the easier it will be versus these mobs.

I read this and was impressed, I tried it and it took a while to get my co-ordination down, but wow… I’m impressed with the survivability and damage dealing of this. Thanks for this information. Just entering inferno and so far so good.

I just want to let you know that when ever i get stumped on a build for my dh your site is the best advice. I normally do a variation on your build but it is always a great starting point. Thanks and keep up the amazing work.

I’ve been using this build since the patch and I love it. I just thought I’d share a couple strategies I picked up.

The only change I’ve made to the build is using Preparation with the Backup Plan Rune. I don’t plan on getting the instant cooldown, but when it hits it helps me way more than a heal.

Doorways and walls are your best friend for placing the spike traps; with practice you can get 2 or even 3 right on top of each other.

In tight areas I act like a matador. I back myself into a corner and then vault THROUGH the mobs then lead them into another corner.

Overpenetration really is the way to go on Impale, not only for the AOE but because you can throw it through invulnerable minions and still hit the Rare. The same applies to shielded, though it’s not as big of a deal then.

Hi rwen! First of all, thank you for your great article. I’ve been trying this build and it rocks!

The point I have a doubt is regarding the weapons. I have two choices: Double 1H xbow with about 960 damage each and 65% crit damage, 10 max discipline, or a blue 2H xbow with 998 damage, 11% speed and a quiver with 8% crit chance and some dex/vit/life.

So far I’ve been using HA and 1H xbow+quiver worked fine (about 35Kdps), but with this new build I wondered if more base damage would work better.

This post was extremely nicely written, and it also contains several helpful details. I appreciated your professional manner of writing this post. You might have created it uncomplicated for me to fully grasp.

Using your build has been an absolute life changer in regards to inferno
Act I is now a breeze and Ive even been able to swap some items for added MF at the expense of more important stats and still come out rather unscathed.
Act II, however is a completely different kettle of fish, but I have found with your build and ditching my MF it is doable
Now, I tried many diferent types of gear:-
eg. strong dex build
strong all resistance build
strong crit% and damage build etc but I was still not getting the results I wanted.
Now, maybe its just my playing style, but I always seem to hit my vault and smoke screen at the wrong time but have no problem with spiketrap or preparation (prob the way my buttons on my keypad are laid out in relation to my stubby fingers lol)….but I have now managed to progress through Act II. How did i do it?
Well..Movement speed was the answer for me.
It may not be the answer for everyone, but, for the sacrifice of a little dex and crit% and reverting back to SharpShooter, I have increased my movement speed to the full 25% (sageseekers 12% Inna’s Glory 6% and Lacuni Prowlers 7%)
Boy, what a change..im flying
I know you mentioned the key to your build was ‘survivability through movement’ right from the start, but, the full 25% really makes a major diff for me.
Just thought I would point out what works for me and TYVM for a great post and build which has respawned the enthusiasm which I lost after the last patch
Keep up the good work )

it all sounds ok. But when talking about build, maybe it would be better to explain your gear in relation to it too. Like mathematically sharp shooter doesn’t work with high attack speed, rather a better match with crit damage. But archery works fine with attack speed if ur already buffed up on that.

For mine build, my main stats are dex, vit, and resis. almost the same as a monk’s requirement, so I don’t die easily, unfortunately it’s a investment on all the gear i have. But I followed a sensible buying sequence, so i rarely get killed at all. Only in act 4 I need a tank to max out efficiency for farming.

Hungering arrow: sometimes when the DH get jammed in a narrow corners or walls, the backfire would work against you, wasting all your discipline. and this situation happens a lot in a public when you have 3 team mates running all over the place, causing elites everywhere, it’s hard to know where u land is safe enough. or sometimes u just get backflip into a new pack. hungering arrow solves this problem by giving up a bit dps and hatred regen. All rune are fine, depends on ur preferences and gear.

Cluster arrow (loaded for bear): huge hatred cost but comes with good dps. compared to elemental arrow, it has the higher initial damage if u have sharp shooter in ur passive slot. also with a bat, ur can fire it 3 time in 5 sec. Elemental arrow, on the other hand, doesn’t deliver the damage as instantaneously as CA, and it has lower initial dps (i mean the first bolt’s damage here). For kiting purposes, u want things done quick, so u spend less time standing still so u can run a little further. Most importantly, when u have sharp shooter, apart from the first bolt, elemental arrow takes minimum use of this passive, and u need to spend time firing it without moving. with CA, u have a little gap of time in between each shot, SS takes that few seconds into account to give u more dps and kiting quality.

Smoke screen: caltrops works well in a public game, but if u get chased by one of the elites persistently (whether solo or public game), caltrops would lose its purpose, because if u spam caltrops to remain the safe distant, u will simply run out of discipline, then u still need to get back to the pack and deal with them with your remaining hp or discipline. So it would be a waste of a skill slot if i don’t have a good tank (with votex) with me.

preparation (battle scar): need that hp and discipline when ur running low, specially dealing with jailer and wallers, bad things happens all the time, preparation buys you more time and more smoke screen.

spike traps (scatter): deals over 800% damage if u know how to place them well. it give u much better kiting quality and u can kite with it while remaining a long distance. and this skills ignores most terrain problems. u will know what i mean when doing the azmodan run and find more elites closeby but they are way down the bottom of another stair set. with my gearing idea, I can even lure a single elite into a tiny corner with me, and bombard it to death before it gets me.

Bat: need it since cluster costs lots of hatred. But the problem comes with I see a goblin. otherwise it’s just a cute flying thing there.

tactical advantage: it goes perfectly well with smoke screen and a 12% movement speed plus boots. without it i wouldn’t be able to run away from any trouble zones.

SS: perfect hit and run passive. compared to archery, as long as ur running in between each hit, the dps u deliver is mathematically higher than using archery.

Steady aim: the playstyle of this build is to kite, so u know ur always at some distance to the mobs, and most of the time it’s further than 15 yards. (u need to test the distance ur comfortable with though, if u tend to be too close to the actions, then might as well pick archery in this case.)

Hey, I’ll try out your guide! Right now I have 130k DPS, and I’m still evolving. Today, I tried to make myself a new build, kinda wierd, but it worked! Instead of HA (Devouring) and ET (Frost arrow), I tried out Bola shot, with the one that gives you discipline, and ET, with that stun. I got more survivability, but less damage ofc. But it worked
And also, if you’re good at kiting and dodging ranged attacks (which are the ones i hate most), you dont need heals. Try preparation with the one that gives you a chance to avoid cooldown! Discipline = better survivability, because you can kite even more!

I wanna start a DH, and was looking for good builds to start developing, and gear to start looking for as I leveled. Compared to the other DH’s I’ve seen running around, this build seems…slow to kill? I guess you would say.

It might have something to do with my normal impatient mood, and having a monk that doesn’t have to kite all the time, but it just seems to take forever to kill stuff.